All too often, agents and brokers enter into producer agreements with insurers without entirely appreciating the terms to which they are agreeing. All too often, agents and brokers enter into producer agreements with insurers without entirely appreciating the terms to which they are agreeing. (iStock)

Pete Seeger, the legendary American folk singer, offered a great distinction between education and experience. “Education,” he said, “is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don't.” The point being: it is extraordinarily important for parties to an agreement to review and comprehend its terms, or else difficulties may well ensue. But achieving the requisite level of understanding is frequently easier said than done.

This is certainly true in the insurance context. All too often, agents and brokers enter into producer agreements with insurers without entirely appreciating the terms to which they are agreeing. Given that producer agreements are typically quite comprehensive and complex, and most floating around the industry lack any semblance of standardization, this is not surprising.

Recommended For You

Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader

Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:

  • Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.